Discovery Cube Los Angeles Finds a Director, Prepares to Open

Things are shaping up rapidly and within budget at Discovery Cube Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley’s newest and biggest museum. It’s scheduled to open Nov 13, 2014.

Discovery Cube Los Angeles is the new science-oriented facility under construction in Sylmar’s Hansen Dam Recreational Center. The $22.4 million project is organized by the Orange County-based Discovery Science Foundation – the folks behind the successful, 25-year-old Discovery Cube Orange County, formerly the Discovery Science Center. You know, the interactive, kid-friendly museum in Santa Ana that features the big black cube visible from the I-5.

The Discovery Science Foundation has hired Kafi Blumenfield as the new executive director of Discovery Cube Los Angeles. She is the former president and CEO of Los Angeles’ Liberty Hill Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides grants, training and campaigns for other groups interested in social change and improvement. She also sits on a number of nonprofit boards.

“I’m really excited about Discovery Cube Los Angeles,” she said during a recent interview. “This is a region where we don’t have a lot of infrastructure. We don’t have something as magical as a Discovery Cube Orange County. Bringing that to the San Fernando Valley is going to be a wonderful resource for Valley kids and families from all over.”

That budget is going to be about $4.7 million annually. The museum aims to hire 24 full-time staffers and 70 part-time workers in the coming months. Officials hope to attract 180,000 visitors during the first year.

Discovery Cube LA is being funded by a mix of federal, city and private sources, including the LA Bureau of Sanitation and the Department of Water and Power. Discovery Cube LA worked with the Los Angeles Development Fund to receive an investment of New Market Tax Credits through US Bank.